paulbalcerak — Journalist. Communicator. Social media manager. Here are the things that inspire and inform me.

A Quick Lesson In Analytics From Pres. Obama’s Campaign Manager

by paulbalcerak on February 1, 2013

Image of Pres. Obama and 2012 painted on a wall

jetheriot / Flickr

“This is the thing I’m passionate about. This campaign has to be metrics-driven. We’re gonna measure every single thing in this campaign. We’re gonna measure our door-knocks, our phone calls, how many people sign up, our email lists — we’re gonna measure everything. I’m gonna make people here measure political outreach calls. We have to measure, control, and adapt everything. If something’s working, we’re gonna go do a bunch of it. If something’s not working, we’re gonna throw it out. We’re gonna not be wedded to any single thing that we’ve done before. We’ve gotta just measure, grow, and adapt.”

–Jim Messina, Pres. Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, in a video message to volunteers prior to the re-election effort.

If the metrics you need don’t exist, make them yourself.

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An Easy Way To Make Your Writing Better

by paulbalcerak on January 3, 2013

Jain Basil Aliyas / Flickr

I’m reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy right now. Here’s Gary on why he speaks in absolutes:

Because if I give you an inch, you’ll run a mile with it. When I said in 1998, “You’re dead if you don’t put your business on the Internet and get in on ecommerce,” was that true? No. But boy, can you imagine trying to be in business in 2010 with zero Web presence? I’d rather shock you into paying attention, and admit later that business rarely requires an all-or-nothing approach, than take the chance that you won’t take the situation seriously enough.

I think this is why my writing is weak sometimes. Note to self.

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Effort: Why the last 16 1/2% is the most important part

by paulbalcerak on September 1, 2012

mrlins / Flickr

I’ve started running recently, and — wait, back up. I should preface this by saying one thing: I suck at running.

How does that happen? How does one become bad at moving faster than what would medically be referred to as “resting”?

I’ve just never been able to run. As a kid, my favorite sport was baseball, which pretty much only required me to occasionally sprint short distances, and even when I played soccer, I was a goalie. I spent three years of high school and college smoking, which didn’t help anything. I made a few attempts over the years to start running, but I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing.

The thing is, I always wanted to be able to run.

A few weeks ago, my wife recommended I try an iPhone app called Get Running, which aims to help you slowly build up to a respectable run time (I think 30 minutes or so). I’ve since worked my way up to being able to run for at least five minutes continuously, which is monumental for me. (UPDATE: Since writing this, I’m up to eight.)

The other day, Get Running challenged me to run for three separate intervals of five minutes, with walking breaks in between. That struck me as a good workout, and not insurmountable.

I finished up my first two runs and was about halfway through my third when I felt myself start to hit that invisible wall. As usual, thoughts like, “Well, you’ve already run quite a lot today, and it’s probably OK to stop,” started creeping into my head.

But here’s what kept me going: Those last 2 1/2 minutes were the 2 1/2 that were going to take my body to the next level. I already knew I could run for five minutes straight. I knew I could run for five minutes, walk a bit and then run another five. It was in the tail end of those last five minutes where I ran into uncharted territory; where I went from pushing myself as far as I could to pushing just a bit farther.

That is growth.

The first 83 1/2 percent of my running time for the day was important, and it was more than I’d ever done just weeks before. But since I’d already achieved it, it had become maintenance. It was expected. That other 16 1/2 percent — that last little bit — was where I stood to gain something new.

It’s easy to stop and look back on what you’ve accomplished before you’ve finished what you set out to do. But it’s important to remember the reason you put all that vastness behind you in the first place was so you could get to the end of that last stretch in front of you.

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I’m joining Curator as their new social media strategist

by paulbalcerak on August 29, 2012

busy.pochi / Flickr

Nothing is as dangerous in communication as assuming you own the message.

That’s the phrase emblazoned on Curator’s website. It says a lot about who they are, and if you know me, it ought to say a lot about why I’m joining them.

Starting September 4, I’ll be their new social media strategist.

It wasn’t an easy decision to leave news, but it was the right one, right now, and looking at my career trajectory, it’s a natural evolution.

The discussion on this blog has never been exclusively about journalism; sometimes, it hasn’t been about journalism at all. What I have tried to do is curate (seriously, no pun intended) a conversation about where technological advancements are taking communication, and how people and brands can use that technology to be better at whatever they want to do. At Curator, I’ll be doing a lot of work to help brands define their identities within the social sphere.

As usual, I’ll share what I can with you here, and hopefully on Curator’s blog, too.

I’m by no means done with news. I was recently elected to the board of the Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington Pro Chapter, where I’ll be helping out with their outreach and continuing education. (More on that in future posts.) I imagine I’ll still be vocal about the industry on this blog and in my social streams, as well.

In the meantime, wish me luck and stay tuned for more.

Oh, and if you’re interested in my job at KIRO 7, check out this page.

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Whatever you’re thinking of posting, don’t

by paulbalcerak on July 25, 2012

Skley / Flickr

Here’s a rule of thumb not enough internet users adhere to: If you have to think that hard about whether something is worth posting, it probably isn’t, so don’t.

Look, there’s a lot of crap on the internet, all right? The last thing it needs is your crap, too.

I won’t act like everything I throw out there is digital Shakespeare, but I frequently sit on stuff, mull stuff over and delete it entirely, all the while thinking it’s pretty damn brilliant. Here are some reasons I do that:

It’s not always possible to accurately express what I mean, you know what I mean? And the thing about the written word is that once it’s published, everyone else gets to decide what it means.
What “sounds” funny or clever to me may not actually be funny or clever. Once you have to explain a joke, it’s definitely not funny.
It’s entirely possible for something to be smart and devoid of value at the same time.
I don’t need to let everyone see my crappy batting practice swings.

We live in a society that takes a picture of goddamn everything, applies a vintage filter to it and posts it for everyone to see. I promise you’ll be better off if you take a bunch of different pictures of one thing, throw away all but the best one and post that instead.

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What’s more liberating: Your iPhone or your car?

by paulbalcerak on July 15, 2012

An image of San Francisco through the windshield of a car.

spieri_sf / Flickr

‘How silly of these young twerps,’ harrumph the older generations. ‘Don’t they know the car enables freedom, travel, friends, dating, and (cough), even….teen-age sex?’

I have news: It’s we older folks who don’t get it. Armed with the capabilities of their ever-more sophisticated iThings, replete with social networking enabling close, immediate exchange of thoughts and experiences with countless ‘friends,’ who needs to actually get in a car and go to a drive-in?

Generation Y Going Nowhere, And They’re Fine With That -Bob Lutz – Forbes

That’s an excerpt from a recent piece in Forbes by former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. In it, he goes on to predict that “In 100 years, [travel] may be almost entirely redundant, as we sit in our rooms, chatting, every participant except one’s self a highly realistic hologram.”

Maybe I’m one of those “older generations” he’s talking about (I’m 28), but I feel like it’s insane that someone would value a smartphone over a car. For me, the relationship between my phone and my car is that the former is a condenser of stuff that would otherwise clutter up the latter: It’s my map, CD changer, owner’s manual, flashlight, insurance card and occasionally my co-pilot when I can’t figure out where I want to go.

Even once I take my phone out of the car — and I use my phone a lot — it’s a thing I use to do the things I want; it’s not the thing that I want to do.

If push came to shove and I had to decide between the two… I mean, it’d be the car, duh, right? In fact, even the thought of that sounds freeing: driving along some winding road in the hills; no phone, no distractions, just the freedom to go wherever you want. (By the way, I drive a Toyota Camry, so it’s not as if my position here has anything to do with some romanticized idea of driving.)

I see Bob Lutz’s point and I actually completely believe in his vision of the future, but I’ve always viewed the internet and social networks, and the technologies that enable them, as idea machines. If no one gets up and turns those ideas into actions, they just sit there.

Really, though, I’m interested — which would you prefer?

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Ann Curry’s red dress sticks it to The Man

by paulbalcerak on June 28, 2012

Photo of Ann Curry during her last day on the Today show

Ann Curry on her last day (NBC / Today via the New York Daily News)

The New York Daily News talked to a few style experts about Ann Curry’s choice of color on her last day as co-host of the Today show:

Ann Curry’s decision to wear a bright red dress on her last day as co-host on NBC’s “Today” show was a sure sign of defiance, color experts told the Daily News.

The powerful in-your-face hue signaled she was not about to be swept aside quietly by the network.

“Absolutely, without question, Ann coming out on that couch, choosing a red dress, that was not by accident,” style expert Gretta Monahan said. “That was definitely to make an impression, a lasting one – that she is here to stay one way or another.

Good for Ann.

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Why Twitter should never go beyond 140

by paulbalcerak on June 22, 2012

Leo Reynolds / Flickr

For the sake of good writing, I hope Twitter never ups the amount of characters allowed per tweet.

Wait, what? Let me explain:

For starters, there are plenty of forums where you can write as much as you want. For another thing, people use Twitter because it speeds up communication.

Most importantly, though, Twitter forces you to get the damn point across.

Forget all the complaints about textspeak and shorthand. Twitter is the only communication device that makes you think about what you’re writing, because you have such a small space to say what you want.

Bring on natural retweets, expanded tweets and whatever-the-hell-else, just don’t ever change that base number.

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Getting started with your personal SEO

by paulbalcerak on May 15, 2012

superboreen / Flickr

I am by no means an SEO expert, but if you plug my name into most search engines, you’ll find a lot of what I want you to find in the first few pages of results. This has come as the result of years spent blogging, posting on social networks — in a word, publishing.

Occasionally, like yesterday morning, I speak to journalism students about how I do what I do. One of the things I’m asked most often is “How can I get myself to rank high in search results?”

This post is meant as a DIY guide to getting started, but I strongly, strongly caution you that this is by no means a definitive work of how-to. If you wish to scroll down past all my preamble, I’ve posted several links to sites that can teach you a lot more about SEO than I can. These are the people I learn from, and they’re mostly the sources for everything I have to say anyway.

Step 1/Rule 1: Good SEO comes from quality content

I cannot emphasize this point enough. Your goal in building up your own personal SEO is to draw people to your content, so you obviously want to put forth your very best.

I’m not going to pretend like every blog post I’ve ever published has been great. Some of it has been downright shitty. The stuff that’s worked, and that’s drawn people to this blog, has been the stuff I’ve invested my time and effort in.

Fuss over your writing the way you would a term paper. And seriously, if you work on something for a long time and it’s just not happening, don’t be afraid to trash it.

Decide on an identity and stick to it

I’m “paulbalcerak” on every network I join. It may or may not be as easy for you to claim your real name like that — sorry, John Smiths of the world — but from an SEO standpoint, consistency is more important. Just make sure you also use your real name. For instance, Ian Lurie’s Twitter handle is @portentint, but his name is Ian Lurie. (Follow the link.)

Do I have to say this? Don’t pick some ass-hatted screen name like “LadiesMan_2012.” Use something you can put on a résumé.

Decide what you want to blog about

If we’re talking about SEO, we’re ostensibly talking about blogging — like I said earlier, publishing. You need to consistently publish in order to build strong SEO, and preferably, you need to stick to a niche.

My niche on this blog has become, more or less, branding. I like that because it’s specific, but it’s also broad enough that it allows me to write about colors, and then pivot and do a piece about how to build up search engine rankings.

If you’re using your blog to further your career, you should use that space as the starting point for where you want to go. When I started out, I blogged a lot about where I thought the journalism industry should go and what it should look like. Now, I get paid to shape that future. Don’t be afraid to tell people what you’re about and what you want.

Read. A lot.

Once you’ve figured out what you want to write about, go find people that are a million times better at it than you are, and devour their writing. Link to it. Blog about it. Comment on their sites. You’ll be stronger in your field and better educated within a few weeks.

Now here’s the part where I send you to other people’s sites. These are the writers/SEO experts I learn the most from:

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Interesting layout: HLN’s home page

by paulbalcerak on May 13, 2012

I don’t think I’ve ever visited HLN’s site, but I clicked over to it today for whatever reason, and I found it really interesting.

The home page is basically a top-10 list of what I guess are what they’ve determined to be the top stories. What I don’t know is what they’re the top 10 of (day, week…?). It also doesn’t help that the story at the top of the page, which is “breaking now,” broke almost 24 hours ago as of this writing (Saturday evening).

Nevertheless, the layout is interesting, and it’s kind of a bold move, too. It’s not hard to guess which stories each news site considers important, but this is the only one I’ve seen that’s willing to assign a number to them.

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Step 1/Rule 1: Good SEO comes from quality content

Decide on an identity and stick to it

Decide what you want to blog about

Read. A lot.

Hi, I’m Paul.